, the law would make New York the second state, after Colorado, to prohibit medical debt from being collected by credit reporting agencies or included in a credit report.
A bad credit report often means difficulty renting a house, buying a car, or securing a loan. And unlike someone whose credit is damaged by reckless spending or a bad investment, people often find themselves hit with huge, unexpected medical bills simply because they’ve suffered from disease or injury.
In at least a dozen states, lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at curtailing the financial burden that comes with medical debt. Some of those bills would keep medical debt from tanking credit scores and create medical debt relief programs, while other proposals would protect personal property from collections.
An estimated 100 million Americans have amassed nearly $200 billion in collective medical debt, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.